I believe the earnings will wind up being on Thursday 2/26 prior to the market opening and I would bet that Mel would love to pull off better financing by then and I wouldn't put it past him. I'm not holding my breath on that because he has plenty of time to get the term-loan for May extended or raise the cash by getting a new loan.
Let's look at the hurdles surpassed and I'd say 1 & 2 were the toughest:
1) Merger would never get approved - Mel proved critics wrong.
2) February convertibles - Mel proved the critics wrong.
3) May Debt 350M - Mel will handle without issue and without dilution in my humble opinion.
4) December is 45% handled already, just the 225M that Ergen holds.
Mel could unwind Phase 2 of the Liberty deal and avoid the preferred share/common share 40% dilution. He has time and may just pull it off -great that he could cut a deal that has that option. I think Malone is a businessman 1st, but a good friend of Mel's to give him this lifeline. He did not have to.